The boat show is the first sign that the spring is coming, but after yesterday it is quite clear that the spring is here

http://youtu.be/rFG9Pr-un3Y

I did not use any grey filter and had f20, thinking that no need to worry about focusing. I was wrong, the focus was too near in most of the shots.

This is with Canon 5D II, 24-105 f4 and LeViteZer gimbal using 3 GB85-1 motors and 8bit Bacecam board (2.4b7). I really should learn to walk without going too much up and down at every step.

I really like the second test. Having some material you can edit an interesting video. The canon camera is great, but I prefer to use a Nex camera, where you have focus peaking and you know what is in focus and what it isn't. It helps me a lot every time.
The third test is very useful if you are selling the car.

The gimbal goes up and down, but the movement is not really annoying. I think the major issue is that it gets "crooked" after a while. Why is that? (I am ignorant about that).

Anyway, if you have built it, I want to know more :)

when you shoot video plan your shots. Do the shot many takes then move on to another planned shot. The invention of gear like this is great but it still doesn't remove the need for basic production rules. 3-4 seconds max then edit.

Ciao Garug!

When you have movement, it's always better to have more frames per second. When I use my drone, I always shoot at 50 fps because I can get more fluid videos. Plus, I am able to get a nice slow down effect in post production, if I want to.
The stabilization on FCP is useful, but I use it not to stabilize images, but when I want a more fluid movement from my videos. As you said, you can't always get what you are looking for.

Do you use your camera in manual or automatic mode?

The Lumix GH4 is awesome! :)

I agree with the fact that a customer want to see how the product works, so it's better to show the entire part of the recording. Anyway, for a complete video you can think to prepare an edit that shows all the possibilities :)

I can't wait to see the LeViteZer Gimbal. Do you have a website?

Hi Garun!
About the problem with your MacBook, always try to put the clips on a different drive than the main one (where OS and editing software are installed), like an external drive. I have no issues editing the GoPro and the Nex 5R clips on my iMac 2011: I connected a thunderbolt device. You can try using an USB connection. It's not fast as a thunderbolt connection, but you can try that. Let me know if you have the time :)

I visited the website. The system is very curious :) I'll check in the future to see if you have finished your new product. But we'll keep updated here on this forum too!

The gimbals are often used with wide lens, but sometimes it is nice to have the longer end available too. The LeViteZer gimbal is very stabile and has strong motors, making possible also to use longer lenses even if they are not perfectly balanced at all focal lengths.

This is demonstrating the use of Zoom (Canon 5D II, 24-105 F4.0), handheld, manually operated and directly as it game from the camera, so no post stabilisation etc.

http://youtu.be/Xs7hIk8z2oo

The videos are much smoother on FCP. I have sent them to Youtube directly from FCP with the better quality setting. Is there some trig I should do to make them play smoother on Youtube or should I use Vimeo, would that be better?

It is strange as sometimes Youtube plays them back quite well...

This is demonstrating using long focal length with LeViteZer gimbal; 105 mm, handheld, manually operated and directly as it game from the camera, so no post stabilisation etc.

In this shot also the lens I.S. is used. (the railing sound). The gimbal is keeping a bit more than normal noise too as the lens is used with hood and ND filter and the gimbal has been balanced at 24 mm, so the balance is way of at 105 mm, but still the result is quite good.

http://youtu.be/wlFO-RQXVSg

The LeViteZer gimbal is updated to 32 bit and with 2 IMUs.

http://youtu.be/3BBx6LMI9Tg


Here is a review of the 32 bit board

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2178272#post28536223

Just having fun with test videos from last week. Testing GoPro 2.7K video and zooming it with FCP. No post stabilisation added.

Thanks Zeb,

I am not too happy how it shows on YouTube either. But I suppose the details f trees is not easy for GoPro and even more difficult for Youtube. However it is the fluency of the video at higher resolutions I am especially disappointed on Youtube.

For this video I used custom resolution matching exactly the GoPro 2.7k video and all the best settings it allow. I think I made mistake with the frame rate using the just bit under 30 fps, when should had used 30 FPS. (first flips where 2.7K natively but later clips 1080P on this video)

Normaly I always use the native resolution and FPS.

But I am still learning and thinking of trying Vimeo too. I think the videos I have seen there look better.

I tried a bit different settings to punch the video a bit and trying to make it more fluent playback. Maybe it is now a bit more fluent, but it seems to be a bit different each playback. The used settings can be found on the Youtube explanations. (the original video is very smooth and fluent playback)

http://youtu.be/7RiUuLcy1aM

If someone has good tips how to download video from FCP to Youtube, to get fluent and vivid playback on youtube, they are most welcome

Ps. nice and high quality films at www.pebblecoastfilms.com , GoPro gets nowhere near in video quality. My next build is a compact GH4 gimbal, but have not quite decided if I also build big enough multicopter to lift it...

The new LeViteZer GH4 gimbal is starting to be ready for testing, still few things to fix, but starting to look good.

I finally did very careful 6-point calibration on both IMUs on the LeViteZer Aerial Gimbal with BaseCam 32bit board and installed the IMUs as accurately as possible.

Also now the Gyro calibration is always performed at startup.

These steps made a huge difference on the Horizon drifting. I am starting to be happy to this gimbal.



There is still some vibration and jello effects, this is probably mostly because the PID settings and there was some slop on the vibration dampening system... so after all always something to improve.

This video is taken with GoPro 2.7k 30fps and Protune setting activated. The original file size after editing is 13 G and on Vimeo only 160 M, The original file looks really good. On Vimeo there is a lot pixelation. Still some learning with colour and exposure settings.

Couple of elks



Taken handheld with LeViteZer gimbal (32 bit board) and GH4 4k with speed booster and 105 mm and finally cropped. Effectively maybe 200 mm optics. There is some work to be done for adjusting follow mode for this long lens.

Testing handheld gimbal with encoders.

Yesterday there was a good change to test the new platform, how it takes high speeds and performs on fast decent etc.



There is some strange sound indicating that the flight controller needs to be retuned for this platform, but it flies nicely and the vibration dampening has no problems.

The gimbal electronics had some strange problems. The gyro had lost its calibration, and when recalibrating the new FW 2.43b9 acted strange, it was really confusing what is the Z-axis, the physical or GUI indicated Z-axis? This was solved by temporarily setting the axis to defaults for the time of the calibration. It uses 'estimate angles from motors' and I forget to perform the follow offset calibration, that was probably the reason for that the horizon is badly off on the video. As the main thing was to test the platform and days are short no time was used sorting this problem out at this time.

Usually the board is installed on a protective box even on the prototypes, but this was an exception with an unlucky result. A metal speck went to the professor pins and caused the board to die. The red flashes constantly and no connection to the board, not even the flash pin connected. Probably the reason the board was finally killed, was also the reason for loosing the calibration.

It was because the board was not protected and there is no warranty claims for this board as it was clearly my fault, but I have a proposal for the board sellers who would like to have happy customers and probably more customers because of their practices. Why not offer a repair service. In this case probably a new board is needed, but the SW license should still be legitimate, so hopefully it would not need to be repaid if the board HW is repaired or even if the board is replaced. Most customers would be happy if this service would cost 70 euros, even 100 euros, it would still be less expensive than the new board.

Ps. the first 2 clips are 1080 30P, the rest 2.7K 30P, GoPro 3 Black ProTune.

Thanks.

This was two first flights with the new platform, that is bigger than the previous and new ESCs too. I had not time for FC tuning at this time, just moved the FC from the old platform to this, It definitively needs to be tuned.

The PID are 'manual auto tuned' that is I tune one axis at time on the position it vibrates worst 1/4 up from the best stability setting. I am not quite sure, but if I remember correctly no manual PID tuning was needed on this gimbal, but there is always couple of tuning iterations to find good power settings and one filter was used for Pitch.

Though these test flights had horizon problems and ended with dead gimbal board, I really could not be more happy about the result, it shows the concept works great.

This Platform platform is with Avroto 2814 motors for GoPro gimbal. I already have T-motor U5 motors to build similar platform for bigger cameras...

Yesterday was the first day of Helsinki international boat show. Some first shots with the BaseCam encoders equipped LeViteZer handheld gimbal.




This gimbal is somewhat heavy for GH4, but it takes easily Canon 8-15mm fisheye lens with speed booster. Next week much lighter and smaller gimbals with GH4 and native Micro Four Thirds lenses.

Taken with small LeViteZer gimbal for GH4 with 32 bit board, but no encoders and with Samyang 8 mm lens.




I like this gimbal a lot because of its size and weight. It is easy to hold in one hand and for me that provides much less up and down movement.

This is taken with encoder gimbal, it is much bigger, need to hold it with two hands close to body. This gimbal could take RED, but was now used with GH4 , SpeedBooster and Canon EF 8-15 mm.




On many shots there is much up and down movement and lateral movement. I just can not move well enough.

The EF 8-15mm was also much more difficult to focus than the Samyang 8 mm and because of that there was plenty of out of focus shots with the EF lens.

My point, just that there is many things to consider. For this event I much prefer the small gimbal with inexpensive lens, even without encoders. (The Small gimbal will get encoders.)

This kind of continuous in boat videos would not have been possible with the bigger gimbal. (but one could of course cut the videos, I just wanted to make continuous video)

Thanks Marten.

I often use the gimbal handle tilted 90 degrees backwards (but not on these videos) It also makes possible using the screen. I think I must try more the upside down.

No special things needed, it will just work. But joystick is needed to tilt the camera 90 degrees down if using follow mode.

Testing LeViteZer X platform and gimbal. Fast up and a bit too fast down. Nothing was broken from the hit to ground, but after the bounce it landed on propeller and broke it, no big deal.

http://youtu.be/xRg7I7n3Kxo

The gimbal was still working after turned around, but it had serious drifting problem, apparently the hit was too much for the gyro. Also it was ok after restart.

Crash testing - done :D

Me gusta el video. Muy buena estabilización. que version tienes.

Muchas gracias

Garug Goodnight, thank you for your words, I do not speak English, I try with google translator.
I've built a card with the 2.50 V B4 for my Lumix LX100 I would like to put a video.